Just 15 years ago, the notion of young children dying of drug overdoses in Milwaukee County was all but unheard of.
Medical Examiner’s records from 2002 indicate that no such deaths occurred that year among those younger than 15.
But in 2016, three one-year-old’s died of drug overdoses in the county. A two-year-old and a nine-year-old also were among the dead.
The drug scene changed dramatically over that decade and a half. In 2002, there were 109 drug deaths and oldest person to die that year was 62.
By 2016, the total number of deaths hit 343 and the oldest person was 93.
And opioids, including prescription pills such as oxycodone, as well as heroin and illegally made fentanyl showed up repeatedly in toxicology reports.
Two of the one-year-olds died from oxycodone and one died from methadone. Both drugs are opioids.
The one-year-olds include:
Cataleya Wimberly who was wearing a onesie and a diaper when she was found unresponsive in a garbage-ridden North Side flat on Feb. 16. She died of a methadone overdose. Paramedics spent 20 minutes trying to revive her, including giving her five shots of epinephrine.
Josiah Rainey, who was found unresponsive while in bed with his aunt on May 1. The Medical Examiner’s report quoted the boy’s mother as saying that his aunt had a prescription for oxycodone.
Jake Stemwell was found in the bedroom of his grandparents by his grandmother on Sept. 12. He too died from oxycodone.